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Opposition leads Slovenia's polls | |
(about 16 hours later) | |
Slovenia's opposition is holding a razor-thin lead over the ruling party of PM Janez Jansa, near-complete results from parliamentary polls show. | |
With 97% of the votes counted, the Social Democrats had 30.5% of the vote against 29.2% for the centre-right Slovenian Democrats, officials said. | |
But they said the vote was too close to predict the outcome. | |
Slovenia, the richest of the former Yugoslav states, is a member of the European Union and Nato. | |
It was also the first east European state to adopt the Euro. | |
Mr Jansa's party is claiming credit for the country's increased prosperity. | |
But unemployment, at 6%, is the highest among the 15 countries which use the Euro currency. | But unemployment, at 6%, is the highest among the 15 countries which use the Euro currency. |
The centre-right government has also frequently been accused of corruption. | |
Coalition allies | |
Earlier on Sunday, two separate exit polls gave the Social Democrats led by Borut Pahor a 4% lead over Mr Jansa's party. | |
Mr Jansa is hoping to gain a new four-year mandate | |
The outcome of the election may be determined by the performance of smaller parties which will be needed as coalition allies in the 90-seat parliament, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports. | |
The exit polls suggested that two allies of the Social Democrats did well in the polls. | |
While the economic policies of the two main parties are similar, a left-leaning government could be expected to focus more on the redistribution of wealth to poorer parts of society, our correspondent says. | |
Polls opened at 0500GMT and closed at 1700GMT. Some 1.7 million people were eligible to vote. |